Teachers' Perceptions on Culturally Relevant Engineering Design: Reflections From Professional Development

• In Event: Allowing Culture to Lead in Spaces of Professional Development and Practice

Abstract

This qualitative study explores teachers’ perceptions of culturally relevant engineering design (CRED) through professional development (PD) that is the first phase of Project ExCEED. The data were collected from nine participants from three public schools in North Dakota (ND). The findings shed light on participants’ understandings of CRED, NGSS, and the engineering design (ED) cycle and determine how PD influences their views about CRED tasks. Preliminary findings suggest that the teachers perceive CRED tasks as authentic, sensitive to students’ needs, and modifiable to cross-curricular contents. The results of this study suggest that PD has a positive influence on participants’ culture-specific and ED knowledge and participants’ confidence with regards to implementing CRED in cross-curricular contexts.

Authors

• Emine Ozturk, University of North Dakota

• Frank Bowman, University of North Dakota

• Julie Robinson, University of North Dakota